Roe v. Wade . Brown v. Board of Education . Citizens United . These Supreme Court cases are quote often by name in news show articles and routine speech , but do you know what these ( and other ) landmark case were really all about ? Here are seven that remold America ’s understanding of theConstitutionand became menage names .
1. Dred Scott v. Sandford, 1857
Denied citizenship to all African Americans
On the eve of the Civil War , theDred Scott decisiondealt a irritating blow to both complimentary and enslaved African Americans . Dred Scott was put up a slave in Missouri . after , he was sold to a U.S. Army sawbones , who move Scott and his family around to several free states and dominion . After the surgeon died , Scott asked the man ’s 2d wife , Eliza Irene Sanford ( whose name was misspelled in homage documents as Sandford ) , to let Scott bribe his freedom , but she refused . Scott sued in Missouri court and mislay , since Missouri considered him a slave , never mind that he had reside in gratis territories .
Scott appeal his pillow slip all the way to the Supreme Court , whichruled 7 - 2to deny Scott his exemption . In the watershed decision , Chief Justice Roger Taney said that first of all , Scott had no rightfulness to sue in Union court because he was black , and therefore not a citizen . Second , individual res publica did n’t have the power to make black people devoid , because slaves were n’t part of the original " political community " at the penning of the Constitution . Lastly , the Court ruled that Scott was Sanford ’s place , and could not be impoverish by the government under theFifth Amendment .
The Dred Scott conclusion emboldened hard worker - owning states to pass around the practice into moreU.S. territoriesand anger the opposition , strengthen reenforcement for the Republican Party . After the Civil War , the Dred Scott decision was overturned by the thirteenth , fourteenth and fifteenth Amendments . Scottwas formally freedjust a few month after the Supreme Court decision but he died a year later on in 1858 of tuberculosis .
2. Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896
preserve the " freestanding but equal " doctrine justifying racial separatism
In 1890 , Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act requiring all passenger train to provide disjoined and equal accommodations for black and white rider , and forbidding the great unwashed from sitting in the rail car of the diametric subspecies . A civic rights grouping in Louisiana decided to gainsay the constitutionality of the law under the adequate protective covering clause of the14th Amendmentand recruited Homer Plessy , who was 7/8ths white ( and therefore still consider a " blackamoor " in Louisiana ) to take a tail in a whites - only motorcar . He was arrested and the case made it all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court . ( John H. Ferguson was the judge who govern against Plessy in the Louisiana Supreme Court . )
TheCourt ruled 7 - 1 against Plessy , arguing that the disjoined but equal accommodations were acceptable under the 14th Amendment and did not imply that blacks were an substandard race . Justice John Marshall Harlan , the lone dissenter , believe that segregate public facilities efficaciously created a racial caste system , writingthat " Our Constitution is color - blind , and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens . "
With the Plessy decision , Southern states had a hefty sound case law for doubling down on racial segregation , which remained separate and far from equal for another half - hundred . The determination was bring down by the next casing on our listing .
3. Brown v. Board of Education, 1954
Ruled that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional
Brown v. Board of Education is one of the best - known cases in Supreme Court story and deservedly so . The guinea pig , brilliantly debate by Thurgood Marshall , who afterward became the first African American Supreme Court justice , was one of the first major effectual breakthroughs of the Civil Rights era , and paved the way for full integration of all public installation .
Oliver Brown filed a year activity wooing against the Board of Education of Topeka , Kansas , after his daughter Linda was denied entering to any of Topeka ’s all - white elementary schools . Brown ’s lawsuit stated that the schools for black children were not equal to the school for livid children , which violated the " adequate protection article " of the fourteenth Amendment .
In aunanimous 9 - 0 decisionauthored by Chief Justice Earl Warren , the Court turn down the disjoined but equal doctrine as it apply to public school . Even if the segregated installation for black and white bookman were " substantially " equal , as the lower courts had ruled , the creation of sequestration effectively branded untried bleak pupil as inferior and deny them full participation and success in American civil life .
Even after this watershed determination , some states were slow to mix , withfull integration not achieved until the early seventies . But the Brown conclusion marked a epitome shift in the Court ’s reading of the 14th Amendment and adjust a common law that would be used to protect other groups against favoritism .
4. Miranda v. Arizona, 1966
Guaranteed basic right to people who are arrested by the police
" You have the right to remain silent . " Those seven words , now a basic of telecasting cop dramas , were n’t part of stock police process until this groundbreaking Supreme Court decision . In Miranda v. Arizona , the Court had to decide whether the Constitution ’s Fifth Amendment protected criminal suspects from self - blame during police interrogations .
For Miranda , the Court addressed four separate case in which suspect were arrested , interrogated for hours by constabulary , and at long last confessed to crimes without the presence of an attorney . The lead plaintiff was Ernesto Miranda who was arrested and charged with rape , looting and kidnapping . He was not read his rights and confessed to the crimes during a police force enquiry . Miranda had no lawyer present and a history of mental illness . establish on his confession , a jurist sentenced him to 20 - 30 years . While he was in prison in Arizona , the American Civil Liberties Union took up his prayer .
In atight 5 - 4 decision , the justices ruled that hoi polloi in constabulary custody have the same Fifth - Amendment right against self - inculpation as witnesses called to testify in court , and they also have a Sixth Amendment right hand to legal counselor .
In its ruling , themajority wrotethat prior to any questioning , " the person must be admonish that he has a right to continue soundless , that any statement he does make may be used as evidence against him , and that he has a right to the bearing of an lawyer , either retained or appointed . "
Those Bible , now repeated during every halt , became known as the " Miranda Warning " or " Miranda Rights . "
As for Ernesto Miranda , he was retry and sentenced to prison house anyway in 1966 . He was released in 1972 but died in 1976 after a stabbing in a barroom fight . Ironically , hissuspected slayer was read his " Miranda Rights " and so never answered law questions . There was no conviction in Miranda ’s death .
5. Roe v. Wade, 1973
legitimise some type of abortion in the U.S.
Jane Roe was a pseudonym for Norma McCorvey , a meaning woman in Texas who was unable to get an miscarriage because state law bar all abortion except when the mother ’s life was at risk . McCorvey ’s life was not in danger , but she could not afford to trip outside of Texas to have an miscarriage . She claimed that the Texas law violated her built-in right to secrecy . ( " Wade " referred to Henry Wade , Dallas County territory lawyer . )
The Court reviewed the case fortwo full years , weighing biological , ethical and religious arguing in gain to constitutional upshot . finally , the justicesruled 7 - 2 in favour of Roe , arguing that the Constitution ’s First , Fourth , Fifth , 9th and 14th Amendments aggregate to create a " zone of privacy " around certain personal decisions like wedding and contraceptive method , and that ostracise all abortion violated that right to make a personal and private decision about whether or not to have a tiddler .
Perhaps most controversially , the Court rule that fetuses before the third trimester had no rightfield as " persons " under the Constitution or the law . The opinion allowed states , if they wished , to ban third - trimester abortions ( because a fetus was " feasible " at this full point , based on medical advances ) and to deliberate example in which they could be outlawed in the 2d trimester , as long as exception were carve out to spare the life or health of the mother . But the Court barred states from revoking a woman ’s rightfield to terminate a maternity in the first trimester for any reason .
Before the example was decided , McCorvey gave birth and put her child up for adoption . She laterchanged her views on abortionand joined the " pro - life " side ( though in a infotainment released in 2020 , McCorvey say she only did thatfor the money ) . She go in 2017 .
This Supreme Court case remains one of the most culturally factious ones in the U.S. On June 24 , 2022 , a conservative bulk ( 6 - 3 ) overturned Roe v. Wade . " The Constitution makes no reference to miscarriage , and no such rightfield is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision , " Justice SamuelAlito wrote . The due operation clause of the 14th Amendment , he wrote , " has been held to guarantee some right that are not mentioned in the Constitution , but any such right must be ' deeply rooted in this Nation ’s history and custom ' and ' implicit in the construct of ordered impropriety . ' The rightfulness to abortion does not fall within this category . " The opinion means that each state can determine its own miscarriage constabulary , and almosthalf the statesare likely to restrict or outlaw abortion .
6. Lawrence v. Texas, 2003
legitimatise homosexuality and expanded the inherent rightfulness to concealment
In 2003 , there were still12 state in which it was a crimefor men to engage in homosexual sexual practice , and Texas was one of them . When police force arrive at the flat of John Geddes Lawrence in answer to a arm disturbance , they establish him having sex with another man , Tyron Garner . They were nab for " deviate sexual intercourse " under the Texas " homosexual conduct " law .
Lawrence invoke and the cause landed before the Supreme Court , which hadruled in 1986that the Constitution does n’t protect a homosexual individual ’s right to privacy because buggery does n’t fall into the " zone of privacy " surrounding marriage ceremony and family decisions . Ina 7 - 2 decision , the justices reversed that early ruling , arguing that the " due process " clause of the fourteenth Amendment extends to privacy in the home .
In his dissenting judgment , Justice Antonin Scaliaangrily warnedthat strike down anal intercourse laws would head to the legalization of same - sex marriage . He was absolutely correct . In 2015 , the court of justice rule in Obergefell v. Hodges that country police force barring same - sex wedlock go against both the adequate protection article and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment .
7. Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 2010
Allowed corporations and other organizations to give unlimited amounts of money for political ads
Citizens United is a conservative activist group that produced a documentary film call " Hillary : The Movie , " which was decisive of Hillary Clinton during her running for president . The company was barred from receiving incarnate funding for the movie by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act ( BCRA ) , which aimed to stop the flow of " big money " into " electioneering communications , " aka political ads . For a motley of reasons , include the First Amendment shelter of free speech , Citizens United argued that the BCRA was unconstitutional .
In a 5 - 4 decision , the Supreme Court agree . The watershed opinion agnize corporations , toil spousal relationship and other for - profit and non-profit-making entities as bear the same free manner of speaking rights as individuals to fund " independent political broadcast " during elections . While Citizens United allowed unlimited corporate financial support of independently produced political ads , itupheld the ban on direct collective contributionsto political candidates or their campaigns .
The Citizens United rulingushered in the eraof topnotch PACs ( political action committees ) in American elections . Super PACs can raiseand spend inexhaustible sums of money to urge for or against political candidates , but they ca n’t donate money direct to those nominee . Super PACs do have to cover their donors to the Federal Election Commission . Critics get by that Super PACs are ordinarily made up of a diminished group of wealthy individuals and corporations who can have an oversize influence on general elections .
